The 30th Space Symposium is almost at an end. The whole event ends tonight with the Space Technology Hall of Fame Dinner at the Broadmoor. The dinner is all about recognizing nominee contributions and picking a winner. The nominees have developed products from satellite and space technology that help make life easier for folks here on Earth.
One of the nominees is the Cospas-Sarsat Global Satellite System, which is a mixed constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) satellites dedicated to detecting and locating a particular kind of distress beacon around the world. SAR is short for “Search and Rescue,” by the way (although some space systems use a different kind of SAR with the same acronym–synthetic aperture radar). You can read a more detailed description of what that system does, here.
The other nominee is the NeuroArm Technologies robot. The robot, specifically a robotic arm, is designed to work with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images, guided by the images to help with neuro-surgery. There’s an older video of the arm at work below. And you can find more information about the project here.
The symposium ends today, but I do have a few pictures, a before and after, of the exhibit hall below.
And here’s one more–although I reserve the right to use this image again for a different post. But XCOR’s booth had two models of their space vehicle. One of them is human scale.
I did volunteer and helped a few hours at Registrant Check-in right in front of the exhibition hall. I had a fantastic time meeting and helping people as they came in. Breakfast and lunch were provided and pretty tasty. If you have the time, I highly recommend helping out at the Space Symposium next year. Of course, if you have more time, the Space Foundation can always use your help with their Discovery Center here in Colorado Springs year round. If interested you can go this page to get more information about volunteering.
The Mad Spaceball 